Clash between a party of 150 Aborigines and patrol led by Laing of the Field Police

Motive

Defence / Reprisal

Type Of Motive

Reprisal

Weapons Used

Stones / Muskets with bayonets, 17 rounds of ball cartridges expelled followed by a bayonet charge.

Notes

Narrative

In this incident, reported in the Hobart Town Courier (HTC), it was stated that: ?Field police fell in with 150 Natives who attacked them with Stones, one of which struck Rogers a blow on the head. The Field Police expended 17 Rounds of ball cartridges and killed two of the dogs, but are not certain whether any of the natives were hurt, on fixing their bayonets and charging, the natives retreated.? In March 1830, district constable Gilbert Robertson, in testimony to the Aborigines Committee, said that ?14 of the Natives? had been killed in this incident. He said that the Aborigines ?had got upon a hill, and threw stones down upon them; the police expended all their ammunition, and being afraid to run away, at length charged with the bayonet, and the Natives fled.? One hundred and twenty one years later, a local historian, Roy Bridges, said that Laing and his men ?chased the Aborigines up the Sorell Valley? where they ?destroyed them.?

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